Microsoft made an estimated $736 Million from Windows Phone in FY 2012

According to Seeking Alpha who have managed to calculate an estimation as to just how much Microsoft has made from Windows Phone in the last fiscal year, the software giant is estimated to be looking at $736 million from the mobile division. While we're still on the steady growth path Microsoft will continue to shield revenue performance of the platform until there's something to frame on the office wall.

Seeking Alpha worked out that by removing each non-Windows Phone layer from Microsoft's EDD (Entertainment and Devices Division), they found Windows Phone revenues has been fairly steady over the past few years, since its launch in 2010.

Taking a look at the above chart, we can see the results of subtracting the other layers to reveal Windows Phone's performance, and -depending on how accurate this method is- it's not looking too bad. Windows Phone is sat at 8% of the EDD total, with Xbox pumping in 84% and Skype on an identical 8%. With the platform picking up steam and OEM partners announcing new Apollo hardware, we're surely to see a clearer picture in 2013.

Market analyst says something mean about WP: OMG WTF why does anyone listen to these clowns? All they do is make sh*t up and hate WP and love iOS.
Market analyst says something good about WP: OMG what good news, surely this is trustworthy.

So can the other analyst's position. 45% of smartphone buyers don't even know WP7 exists. 4% marketshare after almost two years on the market. Kinda not hard to come to the conclusion using empirical information easily at hand that smartphone buyers don't care about WP.

You're gonna have to parse the difference between opinion and analysis then. Because that sounds an awful lot like analysis to me, which is, last I checked, what analysts do. They parse data and arrive at conclusions.

There is very little difference between the two, if any. One may imply being more "informed", but that's quite vague.

Point is, the conclusion reached by that analyst yesterday does appear to be silly and premature, not to mention over-stepping what can possibly be known about consumers. In other words, it was a poor analysis. We leave that to our readers though.

This too can be a poor analysis and to be honest, I don't see a lot of gushing and high-fives in these comments, which belies your claim that people here are embracing these numbers.

There is certainly less opinion from Seeking Alpha though than the post from yesterday, less grandstanding for headlines.

Seriously? An analyst claims "Windows Phone is not gonna get anywhere, like, ever" and then there is an actual income report, and you compare these two?
How hard is it to see that the guy who comes up with "people just don't want Windows Phone," without any actual survey data, without stating whether people even know Windows Phone, is just an unprofessional douche? And you SERIOUSLY compare it to ACTUAL figures?!

Agreed. I'm hoping that WP8, being strongly linked to W8, will provide more transparency about #'s sold & earnings. If MS' partners & fans don't know how the platform is doing, they won't know how to help improve it.